Free Republic

ARLINGTON, Va. — U.S. military researchers needed a company to help military intelligence experts make sense of enemy propaganda campaigns on social media and other online multimedia content. They found a solution from intelligence experts at University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles. Officials of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va., announced a $5.4 million contract to USC in July for the Influence Campaign Awareness and Sensemaking (INCAS) project.INCAS seeks to develop tools with automated influence detection to detect implicit and explicit indicators of geopolitical influence in multilingual online messaging. USC Technology experts will...

Barbed wire, lights and cameras spring up, changing life for locals and making trade cumbersome An extensive buildup of barriers along China’s 3,000-mile southern border is under way, according to public documents, official statements and interviews with residents, ostensibly to battle Covid-19 but with likely long-lasting ramifications on trade and travel. The small Chinese city of Ruili, in the far south next to Myanmar, has seen a major construction project in the past two years. It is a border fence equipped with barbed wire, surveillance cameras and sensors. Farther east, along China’s border with Vietnam, a 12-foot-high fence went up...

Grantees will be part of the police department camera registryKing City police rolling out a new crime-fighting program that gives residents $200 to buy and install outdoor security cameras. “We're confident this should pique some interest in the community as a city it's our attempt to partner with the community and work in collaboration to try and solve the crimes and make the community safer,” said King City police captain, James Hunt. Advertisement Police say security cameras are key in not only preventing home burglaries but helping to solve crimes as well. Video from such cameras helped identify suspects and...

FEAST OF THE PRESENTATION OF THE LORD LUKE 2:22-40 (OR 2:22-32) Friends, today’s Gospel tells the story of the presentation of Jesus in the temple. The temple was, in practically a literal sense, the dwelling place of the Lord. In the temple, divinity and humanity embraced, and the human race was brought back online with God. But the sins of the nation had, according to the prophet Ezekiel, caused the glory of the Lord to depart from the temple. Therefore, one of the deepest aspirations of Israel’s people was to reestablish the temple as the place of right praise so...

Monday marks the 20th anniversary of the Berkshire Armored Car services heist in Rutland. The armed robber got away with $1.9 million and has never been caught. From there, the masked robber put the money in a stolen van and fled the scene. The van was eventually found but the man was not. “The FBI is obviously involved in the case. We’re following up leads and working on the investigation. That’s all I have to say right now,” FBI Agent Lionel Shapiro said in 2002. “There was one guard there, and the secondary guard came in and they each had...

Actress Susan Sarandon retweets message comparing cops at funeral for fallen NYPD Officer Jason Rivera to ‘fascists’ Actress Susan Sarandon in an eyebrow-raising tweet has called into question the need for police in New York City — and she did it by reposting a message likening cops at the funeral for fallen Officer Jason Rivera to fascists. Sarandon posted to Twitter at 5:53 p.m. Tuesday as thousands of cops and New Yorkers gathered at St. Patrick’s Cathedral for the wake for slain NYPD Officer Wilbert Mora.

In a secret-ballot vote Wednesday morning, Conservative MPs chose to oust their leader after just 17 months and one failed election at the helm. After a marathon caucus meeting, where O’Toole made an eleventh-hour pitch to keep his job, 73 MPs voted to launch a leadership race with 45 voting to keep O’Toole on.

The compact, flat Koenigsegg Quark motor is designed to integrate easily into supercars and other vehiclesKoenigsegg VIEW 8 IMAGES Not one to let the inadequacies of existing technology stand in its way, Koenigsegg has been an innovating pioneer in modern powertrain technology, rethinking fundamentals with solutions like gearbox-free direct-drive hybrids and camshaft-free engines. Its latest breakthrough has come in the form of a compact electric motor that squeezes together the torque-heavy benefits of axial flux topology with the power-dense boost of a radial flux layout. The all-new Quark motor will help the boundary-smashing Gemera four-seat GT achieve sprint times formerly...

Female employees at CNN are furious that chief spokesperson Allison Gollust is keeping her job after lying about her affair with newly resigned CEO Jeff Zucker “for years,” sources told The Post. “Why is she allowed to keep her job, when she was promoted while sleeping with the boss?” a CNN insider railed.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Republican-led Tennessee Senate voted Wednesday to remove Democratic Sen. Katrina Robinson from office because of her recent wire fraud conviction, the first time the chamber has removed a senator since at least the Civil War. She angrily denounced her expulsion as a “procedural lynching.” The criminal case against Robinson, a Memphis lawmaker, involves federal grant money at a school for health care school workers she operated in the city before she was elected to the Senate. Robinson, who is Black, argued before the 27-5 vote to expel her that she had been unfairly judged by...

The Blue Origin and Sierra Space Orbital Reef baseline configuration (second half of the 2020s): Core Module, Energy Mast, LIFE, Node, and Science Module. Payload operations commence with the second launch. Credit: Orbital Reef ********************************************************* NASA has signed agreements with three U.S. companies to develop designs of space stations and other commercial destinations in space. The agreements are part of the agency’s efforts to enable a robust, American-led commercial economy in low-Earth orbit. The total estimated award amount for all three funded Space Act Agreements is $415.6 million. The companies that received awards are: Blue Origin of Kent, Washington, for...

Under the measure, houses of worship would be considered ‘essential services’ and no emergency order may ‘directly or indirectly’ cancel public worship if any businesses remain open.TALLAHASSEE, Florida (LifeSiteNews) — Florida lawmakers have passed a bill that would prohibit future “emergency orders” like those enacted during the COVID-19 response from closing down religious institutions if any businesses are allowed to stay open.Florida’s Republican-led Senate approved the measure (SB 254) in a 31-3 vote Thursday. A companion bill filed in the House, HB 215, was advanced Wednesday and awaits a floor vote.Under the new measure, houses of worship would be considered...

Kenney made the accusation of the assaults and “swarming” incidents during a press conference Tuesday afternoon.RCMP is disputing claims made by Premier Jason Kenney that their officers have been assaulted by truckers blockading the Coutts border crossing in southern Alberta.“I am not aware of any assault on any of our officers,” RCMP Cpl. Curtis Peters told the Western Standard.Kenney made the accusation of the assaults and “swarming” incidents during a press conference Tuesday afternoon. The Western Standard has reached out to Kenney’s office for an explanation of the discrepancy between the two stories but hasn’t heard anything back.“This is a...

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) celebrated "the opening of a new call center that will encourage more women to make our state the destination of choice for aborting their unwanted babies. Last year even without the call center we saw 10,000 more women travel here from other states to use our state-of-the-art life termination facilities. This was a 29% boost in output. Our new call center promises to accelerate this growth in business." Pritzker called abortion "a potential growth industry for our state in the event that the Supreme Court overrules its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and returns the...

Let’s face it: The public health policy response to the pandemic has been abysmal. I realize I’m not exactly breaking news here, but it can’t be said enough.Even those on the political left, like Bari Weiss, formerly of The New York Times, and comedian Bill Maher are beginning to publicly question mandates and other anti-COVID measures.Of course the mainstream media have its dutiful lapdogs who still fawn over Dr. Fauci, but what do you expect? Let’s start at the beginning…In January 2020, Dr. Fauci said there was no danger the COVID-19 virus would strike the United States. We were soon...

Omicron has taken a much bigger bite 0ut of the labor market than expected, data from payroll processing firm ADP indicated Wednesday. The number of workers on private payrolls fell by 301,000 in January, falling far short of expectations for growth of 225,000 jobs. This was the first decline in payrolls reported by ADP since 2020. The leisure and hospitality sector shed 154,000 jobs. Trade, transportation, and utilities dropped 62,000 workers. Other services saw payrolls decline by 23,000. Health and education jobs fell by 15,000. Information technology jobs fell by 8,000 and financial services sank by 9,000. Manufacturers cut 21,000...

Heart failure is on the rise and the majority of Canadian hospitals aren’t prepared. A new report from the Heart and Stroke Foundation said hospitals across Canada have postponed hundreds of thousands of surgeries, procedures and treatment consultations for heart patients. With more than 100,000 people diagnosed a year, the foundation believes action needs to be taken — especially with a projected spike in heart failure cases due to cardiovascular complications brought on by COVID-19. The director of St. Boniface Hospital Heart Failure and Transplant Clinics, Dr. Shelley Zieroth, told 680 CJOB that most Canadians are uniformed about the severity...

Ten Republican senators say “boom in oil sales has refilled the Iranian regime’s coffers, removed crucial American leverage over Iran” A group of U.S. senators are concerned that Iranian exports of oil slipping through the cracks of American sanctions are enhancing Tehran’s ability to finance terrorism and gain nuclear capabilities – and placing national security at risk. The 10 Republicans sent a letter to U.S. President Joe Biden last week urging action “against entities that purchase Iranian oil and against those foreign-flagged oil tankers which keep Iran’s illicit oil trade alive.” “The boom in oil sales has refilled the Iranian...

Prayer Warriors, I have a small request for a Vietnam Vet friend of mine who is in his last hours in this realm. Please pray for him, his comfort, but most of all his Salvation. I'm not 100% sure about his commitment to Jesus. I went over there and prayed over him and read a few verses from Romans. Your prayers are greatly appreciated here. May The Lord Jesus be glorified in all of this! His name is Bill. God Bless and Thank you!

Despite the urgent need to pray for national and international revival and for the Lord to lift the scourge of the COVID pandemic, the organizers of the National Prayer Breakfast have once again canceled their in-person gathering at the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C. due to the coronavirus threat. For the second year in a row, the 'event will only be held online.' Launched in 1953 by American Evangelist Billy Graham and then-U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower, the National Prayer Breakfast has become the premier annual gathering of Christian leaders, with typical attendance upwards of 4,000 people. Held the first...